* In the 1997 "Pokemon Monsters Official Fan Book," teasing the supposed appearances of Red, Professor Oak, and Giovanni, they called Red "Satoshi", the Japanese name of his anime counterpart [[Ash Ketchum|Ash]], which is also the namesake of the [[Satoshi Tajiri|creator of the franchise]] and one of his default names, indicating that this is what they originally intended to call him before settling on the name "Red", one of the two original color versions of the games.

* Red's title screen and profile front sprites from {{game|Red and Green|s}} correspond to his earlier [[Capsule Monsters]] artwork instead of his final [[Generation I]] artwork, suggesting that the sprites were created very early in the games' development or that [[Game Freak]] forgot to update their aesthetics to match the changes. His title screen sprite was updated in {{game|Blue| (Japanese)}} but the profile front sprite remained unchanged.

* Red's title screen and profile front sprites from {{game|Red and Green|s}} correspond to his earlier [[Capsule Monsters]] artwork instead of his final [[Generation I]] artwork, suggesting that the sprites were created very early in the games' development or that [[Game Freak]] forgot to update their aesthetics to match the changes. His title screen sprite was updated in {{game|Blue| (Japanese)}} but the profile front sprite remained unchanged.

** In {{game|Yellow}}, due to the completely distinct title screen, Red no longer has a title screen sprite. Although part of the changes made in Pokémon Yellow are directly inspired by the {{pkmn|anime}}, the updates to Red's front sprite seem to be a mix of both matching his then official artwork more accurately and matching [[Ash Ketchum]], his anime counterpart, as the frontal section of his {{wp|cap}} has the same division in the middle as {{Ash}}'s cap from the {{series|original}}. This updated front sprite was then recycled for the [[Generation II]] games. Another possibility is that Pokémon Yellow actually uses the sprite from {{game|Gold and Silver|s}} as these games were in development at least a year prior to the release of Pokémon Yellow in Japan. A similar situation occurs with {{ga|Blue}}.

** In {{game|Yellow}}, due to the completely distinct title screen, Red no longer has a title screen sprite. Although part of the changes made in Pokémon Yellow are directly inspired by the {{pkmn|anime}}, the updates to Red's front sprite seem to be a mix of both matching his then official artwork more accurately and matching [[Ash Ketchum]], his anime counterpart, as the frontal section of his {{wp|cap}} has the same division in the middle as {{Ash}}'s cap from the {{series|original}}. This updated front sprite was then recycled for the [[Generation II]] games. Another possibility is that Pokémon Yellow actually uses the sprite from {{game|Gold and Silver|s}} as these games were in development at least a year prior to the release of Pokémon Yellow in Japan. A similar situation occurs with {{ga|Blue}}.

In the games

Red is introduced as a curious 11-year-old boy from Pallet Town. In the instruction manuals of Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue Versions, Red gained an interest in Pokémon after his best friend, Blue, stopped playing with him and became a bully. His adventure begins one day when Professor Oak calls the two to his lab for a choice of a starter Pokémon, the last three Pokémon Oak owns. Blue challenges Red to a battle immediately, to test out his new Pokémon, thinking he will easily beat Red.

After Red has made his way to Viridian City to the north and taken a package back to Oak in Pallet Town, Oak gives Red and Blue each a Pokédex with which to record data on all known Pokémon in the Kanto region. From here, Red and Blue journey across Kanto, collecting Pokémon to build up their teams, and defeating each of the Gym Leaders in turn, with Blue always one step ahead, showing up from time to time to impede Red's progress.
Red also comes across a gang of Pokémon thieves, Team Rocket, several times through his journey, defeating a group of Team Rocket Grunts who are trying to steal Fossils from Mt. Moon, a member who is running the Nugget Bridge challenge to recruit for the organization on Route 24, and another lone member who has stolen a TM from a family in Cerulean City. Eventually, Red uncovers a plot by Team Rocket, infiltrating their hideout beneath the Celadon Game Corner and encountering their boss, Giovanni. Defeating him and ousting Team Rocket from Celadon, Red uses the Silph Scope that Giovanni leaves behind to battle Ghost-type Pokémon and save Mr. Fuji in the Pokémon Tower in Lavender Town, who is being held hostage by a trio of Grunts. Red soon journeys into Saffron City in the heart of Kanto to find it overrun by Team Rocket, who is attempting to take the recently-invented Master Ball from the Silph Co. President, and defeats Giovanni again, ending the group's plots for the time being.

With seven Badges in hand, Red encounters Giovanni for the final time—this time as the Leader of the Viridian Gym, his final obstacle before the Elite Four of Indigo Plateau. Red defeats him in battle, earning his eighth and final Badge—the Earth Badge—and causing Giovanni to realize that he has no chance at reviving Team Rocket if he cannot defeat Red. He disbands the organization, promising to go into solo training to better himself.

Making it through Victory Road and finally to Indigo Plateau, Red defeats the Elite Four and discovers, to his surprise, that Blue has defeated them before him and is the Champion. Red defeats Blue in the final battle, becoming the Champion himself, but then continues his training, rather than staying at Indigo Plateau. Encountering an offshoot of Team Rocket in the southern Sevii Islands, lead by Executive Archer, Red reveals with his Earth Badge that Giovanni has disbanded the organization, and, though defeated, the group there intends to revive Team Rocket and bring Giovanni back, having already made plans to force Pokémon to evolve with radio waves. Red continues as a wandering Trainer, eventually making his way to the caves of Mt. Silver, where he trains his Pokémon alone.

Eventually, Ethan, Kris, or Lyra arrives at Mt. Silver and challenges Red, identified only as a Pokémon Trainer. If defeated, Red vanishes from Mt. Silver, and returns every time the Elite Four is defeated again by the player of Gold, Silver, Crystal, HeartGold, or SoulSilver.

Pokémon

As the player character, Red can have on his team any of the 151 Pokémon available during Generation I. In Generation III, he can have any of the 386 Pokémon available at that time, though only after the player has obtained the National Pokédex.

When he is encountered as an opponent in Generation II and Generation IV, Red has a set team, based on Generation I in-game event Pokémon, and has the highest leveled trained Pokémon yet encountered in the series, with his Pikachu at level 81 in Generation II and at level 88 in Generation IV.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Red himself appears as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, named only as "Pokémon Trainer", with a team consisting of Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard. Rather than fighting himself, like the other human characters, Red sends his three Pokémon into battle, switching between them in order. He is voiced by Michele Knotz in the English version and 半場友恵 Tomoe Hanba in the Japanese version.

In other games

Red makes an appearance in both Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness. While he does not appear in the games' Story Mode, he is playable in the Battle Mode when a FireRed or LeafGreen cartridge is used, with a male player character chosen. He can take on the Mt. Battle's 100-battle challenge, as well as compete in Colosseum battles. Red also made a brief appearance in the debut trailer of Pokémon Battle Revolution, having a Double Battle against Leaf, using a Deoxys in its Attack Forme and a Wailord. Despite this, he didn't appear in the final cut of the game.

In the anime

While Red himself does not appear in the anime, his counterpart, introduced in the first episode, is the anime's main character, Ash Ketchum. Like Red, Ash is from Pallet Town, on a journey to become a Pokémon Master. Unlike Red, Ash's journey did not end with Kanto, and Ash has continued through every other region introduced in the main series games, as well as the Orange Archipelago south of Kanto, taking the place of the player characters of Generation II during Johto, and being joined by the anime counterparts of May and Dawn during the Hoenn and Sinnoh sagas. Instead of starting with one of the standard three Kanto starters, however, Ash began his journey with a Pikachu, inspiring Pokémon Yellow's creation, as well as causing some to consider Red and Ash to be the same person, most especially due to Red owning one as well.

In the manga

In the Pocket Monsters HGSS Jou's Big Adventure manga

Red in Pocket Monsters HGSS Jou's Big Adventure

Red makes an appearance in Pocket Monsters HGSS Jou's Big Adventure. He was first mentioned by Blue while Jou battled the Gym Leader. Jou then officially enocuntered Red while on Mt. Silver.

Trivia

In the 1997 "Pokemon Monsters Official Fan Book," teasing the supposed appearances of Red, Professor Oak, and Giovanni, they called Red "Satoshi", the Japanese name of his anime counterpart Ash, which is also the namesake of the creator of the franchise and one of his default names, indicating that this is what they originally intended to call him before settling on the name "Red", one of the two original color versions of the games.

Red's title screen and profile front sprites from Pokémon Red and Green correspond to his earlier Capsule Monsters artwork instead of his final Generation I artwork, suggesting that the sprites were created very early in the games' development or that Game Freak forgot to update their aesthetics to match the changes. His title screen sprite was updated in Pokémon Blue but the profile front sprite remained unchanged.

In Pokémon Yellow, due to the completely distinct title screen, Red no longer has a title screen sprite. Although part of the changes made in Pokémon Yellow are directly inspired by the anime, the updates to Red's front sprite seem to be a mix of both matching his then official artwork more accurately and matching Ash Ketchum, his anime counterpart, as the frontal section of his cap has the same division in the middle as Ash's cap from the original series. This updated front sprite was then recycled for the Generation II games. Another possibility is that Pokémon Yellow actually uses the sprite from Pokémon Gold and Silver as these games were in development at least a year prior to the release of Pokémon Yellow in Japan. A similar situation occurs with Blue.

Two Snorlax are required to be caught or defeated in order to travel to Fuchsia City. Furthermore, in the Generation II games and Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, only the Snorlax that was previously blocking Route 12 (now blocking the entrance to Diglett's Cave) is available to the player, suggesting that Red defeated it and caught the one blocking Route 16.

All of these Pokémon are also obtainable within Pokémon Yellow: Pikachu is obtained as the starter Pokémon; Venusaur can be evolved from the Bulbasaur obtained in Cerulean City; Blastoise can evolved from the Squirtle obtained in Vermilion City; Charizard can be evolved from the Charmander obtained on Route 24; Snorlax, Eevee, and Lapras can be obtained by the aforementioned in-game events.

In Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, apart from his Venusaur and Blastoise being fully evolved, Red's team is identical to that of Ash Ketchum throughout most of the Orange Islands anime arc (Ash's Bulbasaur and Squirtle were at the time, and still are presently, in their base forms).

When Red is encountered at the summit of Mt. Silver during Generation II and Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, he has no speech, merely repeating sets of ellipses before beginning the battle. This is a reference to his silent role in Generation I, as he only answered choice questions like Yes or No. This unique characteristic remains in later generations, especially in the remakes.

Similarly, after giving Copycat a Poké Doll and receiving TM31 in return, another brief chatter ensues if the player talks to her again:

{Player}: Hi, thanks for TM31!{Player}: Pardon?{Player}: Is it that fun to mimic my every move?Copycat: You bet! It's a scream!

This implies that Red is speaking, although it could be that Copycat has nothing to mimic, so she is making up words.

Hidden data in the Generation I games reveals placeholder names for Red and Blue:

The unused default name for Red in the English Generation I games is Ninten while Blue's is Sony. While it is impossible to view these names during regular gameplay, changing a few memory addresses in RAM can allow for these names to appear as shown here. This references the fact that in the years surrounding the releases of the Generation I games, Sony was Nintendo's main competition. Ninten is also the default name of the main protagonist of Mother, a game developed by Creatures, Inc. and which has worked on the Pokémon games since the start.

In Pokémon Red and Green, Red's unused default name is やまぐち Yamaguchi while Blue's is いしはら Ishihara. Yamaguchi refers to Wataru Yamaguchi, an art director that worked on the original games, while Ishihara refers to Tsunekaz Ishihara, the current president and CEO of The Pokémon Company and who was the games' producer at the time.

In Pokémon Blue, the unused default names for Red and Blue are, respectively, ゲーフリ Gēfuri, an abbreviation of Game Freak's name in Japanese (ゲームフリーク Gēmu Furīku), and クリチャ Kuricha, a reference to Creatures, Inc.

In Pokémon Yellow, Blue's unused default name remained unaltered while Red's was subtly altered by gaining an extra digit (ゲーフリ１).